Comparing Boris Valabik's penalties to last year

In December 2006, as part of my Chicago Wolves update, I included a chart of the types and number of penalties defenseman Boris Valabik was taking in games. It showed that the overwhelming majority were aggressive penalties. That chart generated a lot of chatter, so I am reprising it.

I've waited until he played the same number of games this year as he had at the time of publication last year: 29 games. Last year as a rookie he had 113 penalty minutes after 29 games, while this year he has 95. So overall he is down, but the comparison table shows that the proportion of the penalties is about the same.

Infraction	Last year	This year
Fighting	35	35
Misconduct	30	20
Roughing	24	14
Holding	10	2
Hooking		4
Interference	8	8
Tripping	8	6
Elbowing	6	2
Instigator	4
Slashing	2	2
Unsportsmanlike	2	2
Charging	2
Crosscheck	2
Total (29 games)	113	95

Valabik has been in the same number of fights (7), and his most frequent minor penalty is still roughing. Holding and hooking are similar penalties, so these types are about the same. Elbowing is down.

What does it mean? Is Valabik finally getting his emotions in check? That's in the eye of the beholder I guess, but there are the numbers for you to digest.